MAN! First my debit card, now my PayPal

[LowThudd]

First my debit card got hacked a week ago, and I had to go through getting a new one. Now someone hacked my PayPal password. PayPal stopped the transaction, but unfortunately I no longer had the same card and could not log onto PayPal without it. Got it all fixed now, but I am wondering if my computer needs better antivirus. I was using BitDeffender, and never had a problem, untill it was close to expiring. I switched to a trial version of http://www.avg.com/ which google recomended. Seemed to be working great, and I was enjoying it's ease of use as well as faster web use. But now I am not sure, since my PayPal password was hacked under it's use.

What web protection are you guys using?

[Ddan]

I would think you need better passwords, not better AV

[LowThudd]

Passwords are changed, but were unique to each account and rated as "Strong" for each. I only use simple passwords for stuff that can't access my info. Something else is going on though, because my(Strong) e-mail password has been hacked twice. Maybe PayPal it's self is having security issues?

As far as hotmail being hacked, I know alot of people who have had their e-mail account zombied. Not sure what that is about.

[ducpainter]

Do you store your passwords on your computer?

[LowThudd]

Do you store your passwords on your computer?

lol. Nope. I at least know better than that. And fortunately can remember enough to have several unique passwords for the important stuff.

[ducpainter]

What operating system?

Do you have everything to do with remote access turned off?

[LowThudd]

Windows 7 Home Pro. I did have an "Everyone" access that I had NOT set up (I am the only user), which the AGV software pointed out, that has been fixed now. Perhaps the damage was done before that. Certainly BitDeffender was not helping there, since it was overlooked. I'll check out your suggestion.

[LowThudd]

Remote assistance was turned on, is now off. Thanks for that!

[ducpainter]

I'd check firewall settings too.

AV is not intended to stop hacking. It is only to prevent viruses.

FWIW try Avast by Alwil. I like it better than AVG. The free version is pretty robust.

[jaxduc]

Damn Chinese are at it again! 
But seriously... it was probably them.

[LowThudd]

Damn Chinese are at it again! 
But seriously... it was probably them.

I actually think you may be right. At the least, my PayPal Acc. This breach occurred just after I got refunded $100 for an RC Heli off eBay that never arrived. lol They tried to get their ill-gotten cash back.

[AdmiralKit]

Do you use your debit card to buy stuff online?  It could be a virus with keylogging software built into it, and credit card/debit card information has some pretty consistent patterns to how stuff is entered.  I would recommend getting a bootable antivirus (other antivirus providers may have their own, and each one will detect different viruses; don't feel you must use AVG's that I linked to) and running it on your machine to make sure it's clean.  Since they got your Paypal password and you said that you use unique passwords for important things like Paypal, it means that at least one computer that you've accessed Paypal from has been compromised somehow.   Make sure all of your major software related to the Internet is also up to date - a lot of times hackers will hit common 3rd party websites and upload malicious software onto them.  Chrome users will be familiar with the occasional "MALICIOUS WEBSITE ALERTS" that occasionally pop up - Google proactively warns Chrome users when they detect sites are hacked; it's not perfect, but any advantage helps.  Make sure that Java, Flash, and Adobe Reader are all up to date as well; these are fairly common venues for attack.

The debit card thing may be a coincidence, if you use it to buy stuff in the offline world.  I'm not a fan of using debit cards to purchase things since the consumer protections that are codified into law are generally a lot more lax with debit cards than with credit cards.  You'll usually get your money back with a minimum of fuss, but thieves are still taking the money directly from your bank account (I had a good buddy of mine get his card hacked, his bank didn't think to notify him until he was overdrawn by $5000) and banks may not immediately replenish your funds.  Regardless, it could be any vendor that you've used your debit card with or their processing network that they use that was compromised and lost your number.  Only California requires that companies notify you when there has been a security breach of confidential consumer information - anywhere else and you're usually SOL when it comes to finding out that your information was potentially taken. There have been some pretty egregious security breaches over the years  - did you know that the Best Buy credit card terminals used to communicate via unsecured wifi?  Still sucks when it happens, though.

[MendoDave]

Another avenue for hacking cards are those machines that you swipe your card at. Dudes be goin an puttin skimmers on the store machines, gas pumps, AtMs etc. then they come back and retrive the data later with the pin you used. They can make a new card with that info.




Gas pump skimmer for sale.

http://freshgoodcvv.blogspot.com/p/credit-card-skimmer-for-sale.html

(Not my site, its just a site i found online in a few minutes of looking)